Microphone buses, Primary direct and bleed channels – FXpansion BFD Premium Acoustic Drum Module User Manual
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A Kit-Piece’s own close mic’d direct signal is known as the primary direct mic channel.
For a kick, this is in the Kick In and Out mic channels, and for a hihat or cymbal, it is in
the Multi mic channel.
Microphone buses
As well as mic channels, when using BFD you will need to be aware of the four
microphone buses, which are ‘groups’ of the mic channels, and can be manipulated as
groups using the Bus Mixer.
The Overhead, Room and PZM mics are sometimes known collectively as the ‘ambient’
mic buses.
Direct Master
This Bus comprises all mono Direct mic channels: it includes all bleed channels as
well as primary direct mic channels. The Direct mic channels for each Kit-Piece can be
manipulated individually using the Direct Mixer area. The Direct Master fader in the Bus
Mixer controls the volume of the overall mix of Direct mic channels.
Overhead
This bus groups the Overhead mic channels from all Kit-Pieces.
Room
This bus groups the Room mic channels from all Kit-Pieces.
PZM
This bus groups the PZM mic channels from all Kit-Pieces.
Primary direct and bleed channels
The Kick In/Out mic channels are the primary direct mic channels for the kick. Bleed
from the kick appears in the Snare Bottom/Top mic channels. The Multi mic channel is
empty for kicks, except on certain BFD XFL kicks, which feature bleed captured through
the hihat mic.
The Snare Bottom/Top mic channels are the primary direct mic channels for the snare.
Bleed from the snare appears in the Kick In/Out mic channels. The Multi mic channel
is empty for snares, except on certain BFD XFL snares, which feature bleed captured
through the hihat mic.
The Multi mic channel is the primary direct mic channel for all other Kit-Pieces, whose
bleed appears in the Kick In/Out and Snare Bottom/Top mic channels.
Bleed is only present in the kick and snare mic channels. Bleed from the other mics is
not included, because the levels were just too low to justify the extra RAM and hard disk
bandwidth required. In any case, bleed can be, in many cases, an annoying side effect
of the drum-recording process, which is often minimized during post-processing by using
noise gates. The Output Options panel features a number of ways to control bleed.
Chapter 10: BFD and multiple outputs